This is my blog for posting material of academic interest (to me). Expect to see stuff about Greek and Roman history, archaeology, Classical literature, the Ancient Near East, historical films, teaching, the reception of the Classics in science fiction, the abuse of history, science fiction criticism, and occasionally other historical stuff. Expect spoilers at all times.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

The education of the imaginary aristocracy

In the long-running BBC Radio soap The Archers, there is a character called Nigel Pargetter. I have tended to charitably consider him to be an idiot. Tonight, he surprised me by quoting Ovid from memory. The passage is Heroides 5.21-2, and the rather free translation Nigel quotes is:

The Beeches, faithful guardians of your flame,Bear in their wounded trunks Oenone's name;And as the trunks, so still the letters grow.

(I don't know the translator, as the only place I found that exact rendition through a Google search didn't attribute it. I'm guessing it's Victorian, and probably famous. Anyone know?)

It says something quite reassuring about our connection with the Classical past that a character on a soap opera (albeit broadcast on a self-consciously erudite radio station) can still quote Ovid.

He was mourning the beeches in Lower Loxley, which had been brought down and weren't going to be replanted. I think it was meant to place Nigel as someone who went to a 'good school', which we all knew, but also as someone who remembered something he learnt there (which we didn't), and a s a person with a poetic soul.

I found this site on Google as I have just heard a replay of the Archers where Nigel came out with this quote which I found rather beautiful

It reminded me of a fabulous poem by George Manley Hopkins called "Binsley Poplars". It expresses his horror when, on one of his favourite walks, he came across an avenue of Poplars that had recently been chopped down.

I discovered it a couple of years or so ago, published in the Daily Telegraph of all places.

After learning Kipling’s “Sussex” for my father in law’s funeral, I have developed a hobby of learning poems that appeal to me. This was the second one I learnt and I have since discovered many other amazing poems by this brilliant man.

About Me

52-year old academic, currently working for the University of Roehampton. Also with roles in British Science Fiction Association and Science Fiction Foundation.
All views expressed here are my own, and should not be taken as representing those of any institution or organization I work for or am connected with.